In his first questioning in the Bundestag investigation committee, ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun largely refused to make a statement, but politicians and supervisory authorities defended himself. He had “at no time made determinations or received indications that authorities, supervisory bodies or politicians had not behaved correctly, in breach of duty or in any form unfairly,” explained the 51 – year-olds on Thursday in his brief statement. This also applies to the supervisory board and auditors, who were apparently severely deceived.

Many questions, no answers Braun did not answer any questions. He wanted to speak to the public prosecutor first, explained Braun, who has been in custody since the summer, for his silence. The MPs sharply criticized Braun’s behavior. The Union MP Matthias Hauer and the Green MP Danyal Bayaz accused Braun of having behaved disrespectfully towards parliament and the public. “He’s tricking, he’s ruthlessly pursuing his own advantage,” emphasized the FDP member Florian Toncar. Braun will certainly be summoned again, announced the committee chairman Kay Gottschalk from the AfD.

In his prepared statement, Braun spoke of “misappropriated company funds”, but made no more precise information about victims and profiteers. He announced that he wanted to comment “promptly” to the public prosecutor. “In the end, independent judges will decide who bears the legal responsibility for the collapse of the Wirecard AG company,” he said.

The ex-company boss is considered to be one of the main culprits for the fraud scandal in which Wirecard is said to have booked billions in bogus transactions over the years. The committee wants to discover whether the supervisory authorities have handled the German fintech company as an up-and-coming stock market star despite indications of irregularities with kid gloves.

Instead, the Bafin targeted the journalists who uncovered the scandal. But although the reporters of the Financial Times already 2018 and 2019 reported about possible fraud had the dizziness finally flew in the summer 2020: bankruptcy. Braun resigned and was arrested; Board colleague Jan Marsalek has gone abroad.

Supervisory board clueless The former Wirecard supervisory board member Tina Kleingarn also let Braun in do not appear in a good light. She could not have imagined “that the board members of Wirecard AG could be involved in fraudulent behavior,” she said before the committee. However, she did not agree with the corporate governance at Wirecard. Corporate governance refers to the rules and procedures according to which a company is run.

The 46 – year old was up to September 2017 Member of the Wirecard Supervisory Board for one and a half years and then resigned. She reported that the company had been “run up and down”, more like a start-up than a publicly traded company. She resigned from her position on the supervisory board because she had different ideas about adequate corporate governance.

In her letter of resignation, which the German Press Agency had received, Kleingarn wrote that the CEO was not prepared to To adapt corporate management to the higher complexity and a modern understanding of corporate governance. There is a lack of orderly and appropriate control and management structures. The board of directors acts too autonomously and sees corporate monitoring as a burden. In the committee she said that the boss in the house was clearly brown. ( With material from the dpa ) / (vbr)